Zigong Dinosaur Museum

For a change of pace from Chongqing itself, the Zigong Dinosaur Museum makes a genuinely worthwhile day trip — around 1.5 hours away by high-speed train, in the neighboring city of Zigong. Opened in 1987 as the first dedicated dinosaur museum in Asia, it’s built directly on top of the Dashanpu fossil site, one of the richest and most concentrated dinosaur fossil beds ever discovered, first uncovered in 1972. It’s regularly ranked among the world’s three largest dinosaur museums, and has been praised by international publications as one of the best of its kind anywhere.

The museum is arranged in three parts: an introductory hall covering fossils, geological periods, and dinosaur evolution; a main exhibition hall displaying mounted skeletons and individual fossils, including species first identified here, like Mamenchisaurus hochuanensis with its extraordinarily long neck; and — the highlight for most visitors — an open excavation hall, where fossils remain embedded in the ground exactly as they were found, viewable from a raised walkway or up close from below. Zigong itself has a long history as a salt-producing center, and the wider area holds over 40 separate dinosaur fossil sites, making this one of the most fossil-dense regions in China.

Before you go: the museum has previously closed for extended renovation, so it’s worth checking current opening status before making the trip out — this is a significant day trip, not a quick detour, and you don’t want to arrive to find it shut.